Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Preview of "Mad Men," Season Six

With season
six of “Mad Men” premiering on Sunday, I
have a few thoughts regarding the events that will shape it. Though executive
producer Matt Weiner has frequently noted that the show is not a history
lesson, it is very likely that the new season will take place in 1968, as it
would be surprising to produce a show about the 1960s while omitting its most
eventful year. While we can’t anticipate the personal challenges that
await Don Draper and the other characters, we do know the major historical
events that are to follow.

Vietnam took
center stage at the outset of the fateful year. Throughout the fall of
1967, the Johnson Administration repeatedly suggested the U.S. military was
making progress against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army and that the
nation could see “the light at the end of the tunnel.” The communist allies,
however, punctured this optimism when they launched a massive attack in January
1968 called the Tet Offensive. Though the U.S. military eventually
repelled it, the communists’ ability to launch a nationwide attack weakened
public support for the war at home and destroyed Johnson’s remaining
credibility.

In the
aftermath of Tet, Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota garnered 42 percent of
the vote running as an anti-war candidate against Johnson in the New Hampshire
primary. Though McCarthy lost, his strong performance revealed how much
the war had weakened LBJ. Robert Kennedy, who had been the first choice
of the anti-war forces, then entered the race, setting off one of the most
dramatic primary battles in American history. With his popularity crumbling,
Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election on March 31.

A week later,
James Early Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis,
Tennessee. King had been preparing for his Poor People’s Campaign, which
was to include a march on Washington D.C. to demand greater funding for
anti-poverty programs, which had been diminished by the diversion of resources
to the war. In accordance with his new emphasis on economic inequality,
King accepted an invitation to support the sanitation strike in Memphis, where
garbage workers were fighting for better pay and work conditions. After
his assassination, riots broke out in 125 cities across the country, adding to
the national sense of disorder.

RFK and
McCarthy continued to battle it out in the Democratic primaries. Echoing
the 2008 race between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, RFK’s support came
largely from blue-collar whites while McCarthy’s backing came primarily from
upscale constituencies. Many viewed Kennedy as the only person who could
still speak to both sides of the cultural divide in America, as he retained
credibility with working-class whites as well as minorities. After
winning the crucial California primary over McCarthy on June 6, RFK was shot
and killed by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles.

Even if
Kennedy had lived, he would have faced an uphill battle to win the Democratic
nomination. At this time, only a small number of delegates were allocated
through primaries and caucuses, as party officials still controlled the
nominating process. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, the choice of the
establishment, was virtually certain to win the nomination.

With no real
possibility of an anti-war nominee, the radical faction of the peace movement
mobilized to protest at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. Mayor
Richard Daley and the city government refused to provide marching permits and
confrontations with the local police ensued. Eventually, police and the
protesters squared off outside the convention hall and a national television
audience watched the cops use tear gas and violence against the
militants. Humphrey received the nomination inside, but it was clear the
violence outside had seriously damaged his candidacy.

The fall
campaign witnessed a presidential race between Humphrey, Republican nominee
Richard Nixon, and the independent candidacy of Alabama Governor George
Wallace. Both Nixon and Wallace campaigned strongly on the theme of “law
and order,” declaring they would clamp down on rising crime, urban riots, and
anti-war demonstrators. As I pointed out in a previous post, it is
important to remember than many Americans disdained and resisted the social
changes of the 1960s. See http://popculturemeetshistory.blogspot.com/2012/03/mad-men-season-5-premiere-part-2.html

Well behind at
the outset of the general election campaign, Humphrey began to gain traction in
September after he made a speech calling for more aggressive action to achieve
peace in Vietnam, distancing himself from the unpopular Johnson. His
campaign started to reduce Nixon’s lead, particularly as labor unions worked to
move frustrated blue-collar voters away from supporting Wallace and back into
their traditional home in the Democratic Party. In the end, though, Nixon
edged out Humphrey for a narrow victory in the November election.

The year ended
on an upbeat note as Apollo 8, the first spacecraft to orbit the moon, sent
back incredible images of Earth on Christmas Eve. Nevertheless, 1968 was
a turbulent and divisive year and its repercussions would echo for decades to
come. It will be interesting to see how Don, Peggy, Joan, and Roger
navigate its travails.